Hydraulic dredge



Aug. 12, 1930. K s ET AL 1,772,547

' HYDRAULIC DREDGE Filed Dec. 20, 1926 '2 Sheets-Sheet 1 "6IIIIIIIIIIII%IIIIIIII,I

V lllllllllll(llllll BY "RM A TTORNEYS.

INVENTORS. Y

Aug. 12, 1930. M. F. KEESE ET AL 1,772,547

HYDRAUL I C DREDGE ATTORNEYS.

excavated material. it)

Patented Aug. 12, 1930 MATTHEWR'KEESE, orisouTH NIILWA UK E, AND ALLAN-"n. TAYLOR, or MILWAUK E,

WISCONSIN, ASSIGNQRS TO BUOYR UsmfRIE-ooMPAN or son'rn MILWAUKEE, WIS- CONSIN, A coRPoRArI-oN' or nmmwrmn nvnnammc nnnnon Application filamenta- 20, 1926. 'SeriaIINo'. 155,928. r

This invention pertains to type of floating dredge which carries, pivoted at'the bow, a ladder, so-oalled, which is tdbe w; cred into the Waterat man le of aboiit degrees from thehorizontal, The ladder care ries a cutter-head for stirringiipthe material to be excavated, a shaft for driving. thecutter head, and a suction pipefo'r' pumping up the This pipe must necessarily have' a" pivoted joint at the point where itleaves the ladder and enters the hull of the dredge; andjthis joint presents a problemwhich we believe we are the first to solvewith complete satisfaction. V i "H i Q The two most common solutions of the past are asfolloWs; 1 i 1 j (a) The pipe makes a right angletnrnat the axis of the trunnions, Whichhold the ladder to the hull, passes along, the aiiis of the trunnions," then turns againat a right-angle Y and enters the hull. There is a swivel jolnt in that portion ofthepipe which passes along the axis of the trunnions. j

-(b) The pipe bends once, in aball-andsocket joint at thetrlinnionsy Each of these solutions is'opentdthe oh'ection of. having a; too sharp bendii'n the p pe, which impedes the flow of the eircavatedmaterial-; i

7 It is the object of our invention; to remove this objection, by providing two ball-and socket joints, so contrived that; the total bend will be apportioned --substantially equally over the twojoints. j i We are aware that double ball joints are old in the art, but we know, of none wherein this purpose is accomplished. 1; i

Other advantages of our invention will be evident to those skilled in theart, and there fore need not be herein more specifically set forth. j a I U r v Our invention consists iii the novelpart's, and in the combinations" and arrangements thereof, which are defined in the appended claims; and of which one embodiment is exemplified in the accompanying drawings,

which are hereinafter particularly; described and explamed.

ging ladder in its midposition'.

Figure 3 is a vertical section, with theladder lowered to its extreme position, 45 degrees fromthe horizontal.

o Figure i is a vertical section showing the principle of our invention extended to a quadruple oint; I A I v Tl'iehullis shown at 1, With the digging ladder 2" and the trunnionjoint 3 between them. These three elements are shown inerfe ly conventionally, as they may be'of'any'con venient design, and form no part of oiir ,vention. The shaftto the cutter-head is, for a like reason, not shoWI'i'. v i M j A pipe 4 is rigidly carried by the ladder 2, and a pipe 5 is slidably carried by the ladder. Connecting these two pipes is'a sliding joint 6, preferably located in a position whichwill beunder water during digging, so as" to elimifl- Hate the need of packing the joint. Pipe 4 may be rigidly secured to the ladder 2 in any convenient manner, as by piecesfof meta-1,12, bolted or screwed to the ladder 2 and the joint .6; also by other similar pieces of metal (not shown); secured elsewhere to thefladderj 2 and pipe 4. The pipe 5 is held bythe ladder 2 and constrained against lateral movement with respect thereto,bythej oint 6, Which may be aiig'mented, if desired, by other means,

snch as pieces of metal 13 bolted'or screwed to the ladder'2 and bearing against the pipe 5. If desired,the pipe can be built integral, and the ladder jointe A The upper end of the pipe 5 terminates in the male member 7 of a ball-and-socket joint. The female member 8 of this oint is formed integral with the male member 9 of another similar oint.

The female member 10 of this second joint is the lower end of apipe 11, leading into the hull 1 atan angle of 22 /2 degrees] from the horizontal.

To simplify the explanation of our device,

we have inserted capital letters at certain very important points of the drawings.

These letters are to be taken as designations of certain lines perpendicular to the plane of lar to the plane of the drawing, represents this axis. If, however, the ladder be swung on a gimbal joint, then B is the point at the intersection of the axes of the two axles of the gimbal trunnions.

According as the ladder is pivoted to the hull to turn about a horizontal line or'about a point, so also will the two ball-and-socket joint-s be thereby constrained to turn about horizontal axes through A and C, or to turn about points A and C. A is therefore the 1 center of the'coacting spherical surfaces of the ball-and-socketjoint composed of 9 and 10; and C is the center of the coacting spherical surfaces of the ball-and-socket oint composed of 7 and'8.

D is a horizontal line, or point, fixed with respect to the ladder 2, but not with respect to the ball-and-socket joint 7, 8. This line, or point, D, coincides with C when the ladder is in its mid position, as shown in Figure 2.

Our invention resides principally in the relative location of A, B, and C. We shall first consider them as horizontal lines, passing perpendicularly to the plane of the draw- Times A and B are both fixed with respect to the hull 1, and are parallel. They lie at any convenient distance apart, and have the plane joining them depressed at an angle of 22% degrees from the horizontal.

The device is so proportioned and arranged that, when the ladder occupies its mid position, as shown in Figure 2, the line Cand D, which is then, and only then, coincident with Clies in the same plane as A and B, and is just as far-from B as B is from A.

If the ladder is raised or lowered from its mid position, then since the line C is held at a fixed distance from the line A by reason of both being fixed in the dumb-bell shaped member 8, 9, the line C will describe a cylinder aboutthe line A as an axis, the radius being the distance AC; and since the line D is held at a fixed distance from the line B by reason of both being fixed in the ladder, the line D will describe a cylinder about the line B as an axis, the radius being the distance BD, which distance is the same as BC of Figure 2, and is equal to the distance AB. The distances AC and BD, being both invariable distances,-used as radii about invariable centers, A and B respectively, it is evident that, on moving the ladder in either direction away from its mid position, the line D will cease to coincide with the line C, and

slippage between the pipe 5 and the pipe 4, p

at the Joint 6.

It might be thou ht that this slippage will cause an apprecia le departure from the canal distribution of the angle of rotation theladder over the two ball-and-socket 'oints, but this departure is inappreciable.

n Figure 1, in which the ladder has been rotated through 22% degrees from its mean position, the angle of rotation of the right hand ball-joint exceeds that of the left hand ball-joint by only 22 2 arcs in A; sin 22 ",,which is almost exactl 26 4 minutes of arc. This renders the siippage at the joint 6 less than 2 per cent of the distance AC between the centers of the ball joints; hence it will be seen thatthe slippage has been greatly exaggerated in the drawings.

'Let us now consider that the ladder rotates about a gimbal joint which has its cent er at the point B, instead of rotating about a horizontal, axis through B. The movement of the ladder will now not be limited to a vertical plane. 7

Points A and B are fixed with respect to the hull, A being also fixed with respect to the dumb-bell shaped member 8, 9. A and B lie at any convenient distance apart, with the line joining them depressed at an angle of 22.5 degrees from the horizontal, and extending straight ahead from the dredge.

The device is so proportioned and arranged that, when the ladder is in its mid position, the point C-and D, which is then, and only then, coincident with C-lies in the same straight line as A and B, and just as far from B as B is from A.

If the ladder is'raised or lowered from its mid. position, or swung to one side or the other, or if any combination of these motions is, made, then since C is held at a fixed distance' from A by reason of both being fixed in the dumb-bell shaped member 8, 9, the point C will always. remain on the surface of a. sphere whose center is at the fixed point A, and whose radius is the fixed distance AC. Similarly, since both the points B and D are fixed with respect to the ladder, B being in addition fixed with respect to the hull, it

follows that D must remain on the surface of a sphere whose center is the fixed point B, and whose radius is the fixed distance BD, which distance is the same as BC of Figure 2 .and is-equal to the distance AB. The dis- IZIQ 'tion' increases. o- This SmaILdistanCe, is, as before, taken np bythe: slip-joint 6. '1

Since the dumb bell shapedsineinber 8, 9,

is' constrainedagainst motion only the .coaction of its'spherical surfaces w th the spherical surfaces of members Tend 10, it is evidentthat this member 8, 9, will readily accommodate itself to any deflection of the ladder that is possible Withtheparticular method of connecting the ladder to the hull.

It is to be understoodthat'the angles,

degreesand22 degrees, are merely illus I trative, and that our: invention isequally applicable to any otherrran'gei of swing. and its corresponding:mid-position:-i

It is to'be understood that the male iemale relation ofi'either' ball and-socket joint, or of bothjoints, may be reversed, thoughthe arrangement shown the preferred one. A simple and, obvlous-extenslon of our principles is shown in Figure 4, in which 1 isthehull'andQ the ladder as'in the other drawings. 7 Rigidly attached to the hull is the ladder-section 14th which theiladder 2 is pivoted at B. A telescoping ladder-section 15' is pivoted to ladder-section Mat A, and ladder 2 at G. 1

The de'vioeot Figured, as so far described, operates exactly like the devices ofi Figures 1,12 and 3, the section 15 of Figure 4- corre spending to the dumbbell 8 of Figures 1 to 3, exeept that in Figure 4: the" slippage is 7 taken: up in thetelescoping member 15, and

henceth-e angle at point B betweenla-dder' 2 i; andladder-section 14 is distributed exactly equally over'the two joints at A andG respectively.

Slidabl y carried-bythe "telescoping section 15, as symbolically ill'ustrated'by brackets 16 bolted to the telescoping member 15 and bearingagainst the dumbbell-about to be mentioned, is a telescoping dumbbell 17 similar tothe dumbbell f: the other figures, except that p it: has a longer central portion and: is telescoping}; l g

A pipe 11- carried. y: the-hull 1 "is jointed to dumbbell 17 by a dumbbell 18, ineizactly the same manner that the dumbb'ell 8 of the other, two figures jfoins thepipes "ll-and 5.

stantially equally over the ball jointsbetween dumbbell 1,7 and dumbbell '18, and,

dumbbell 1 8and pipe 11, respectively. Thus the angle at point B is distributed into four substantially equal parts each occurring at one of the four ball joints of Figureieh This principle-oi substantially equal division of an angle can be extended indefinitely by powers of two.

Although the foregoing exemplifies vonly Y pneembodiment of ourinvention; we donot intend to limit ourselves to the particular disclosure, but intend to avail ourselves of all equivalents;

1Weclaim: A s

i. 1. In avhydraulicdredg'e, the: combination of: a hull; a digging ladder, pivotally attached to the hull; a pipe, rigidly secured-to thefhull; a pipe, carried by the ladderyand slidablelength wisethereof, but constrained against lateral movement with respect thereto'; an intermediate section of pipe two balland-socket pipe-joints, each of which joins the intermediate section to one or the other pipe; an additional pipe, ri gidly secured to o the ladder and a slip-joint between this pipe and the slidable pipe sai dsl-ip-joint being solocated as to lie below the water level when: the ladder-is in its digging position;

' the pivot between the hull and the ladder and the pivots of the two ball-and-socket jointsb'eingf so'p'ositioned that, in oneposition'ofthe ladder, the three pivot points lie in astraightline; with the ladder-hull" pivot lying substantially equidistant between the other'twopivot points. i 7

' 2. In a hydfaulicdr'edge, the combination of: a hull; a digging ladder, pivotally attached to the hull; a pipe, rigidly secured to'the hull; apipe, carried by the ladder, and slidab-le lengthwise thereof, but constrained to; an intermediate section oipipe; two balland-socket pipe-joints, each of which joins the: intermediate section to one or the other pipeyan additional pipe, rigidly secured to theladder; and a slip-joint between this pipe and the 'slidable pipe; the; pivot between the that-,in one position of the ladder, the three pivot points lie in a straight line, with the,

ladder-hull pivot lying-substantially equi distant between the othertwo pivot points 3; In a hydraulic dredge, the combination of: a hull;i-a digging ladder, 'pivotally attached to the hull; a pipe, rigidly secured to the hull; a pipe carried by -the ladder, and

slidable lengthwise thereof, but constrained (against lateral movement with respect-thereto; an intermediate section of pipe; and two ball-and socket pipe-joints, each of which oins the intermediate section t'o one or the other pipe the pivot between the hull and i the ladder and the pivots of the two ball andsocketjoints being so positionedthat, in one position "of theladder', the three pivot points lie in a straight line, with the ladderhull against lateral movement with respect there- H0 hull and the ladder and the pivots of the 1 two ball-and-socket joints being so positioned hinged connections being parallel to the first-- pivot lying substantially equidistant between the other two pivot points.

4. In a hydraulic dredge, the combination of: a hull; a digging ladder, pivotally attachedto the hull; a pipe, rigidly secured to the hull; a pipe, carried by the ladder, and slidable lengthwise thereof, but constrained against lateral movement with respect thereto; an intermediate. section of pipe; and two ball-and-socket pipe-joints, each of which joins the intermediate section to one or the other pipe; the pivot between the hull and the ladder and the pivots of the two balland-socket joints being so positioned that, in the mean position of the ladder, the three pivot points lie in a straight line, with the ladder-hull pivot lying substantially equidistant between the other two pivot points.

5. A flexible pipe-coupling, comprising in combination: a structure; a supporting element, pivoted thereto to rotate about a fixed axis; a pipe, fixedly carried by the structure a pipe, slidably carried by the supporting element; an intermediate connecting pipe, having at each end a hinged connection with an end of one of said pipes, the axes of both hinged connections being parallel to the firstmentioned axis; and a fourth pipe, fixedly carried by the supporting element, and slidably jointed to the pipe which is slidably carried by the supporting element; the axis between the structure and the supporting element lying, in one position of the device, midway between the axes of the two hinged connections.

6. A flexible pipe-coupling, comprising in combination: a structure; a supporting ele- 'ment, pivoted thereto to rotate about a fixed axis; a pipe, fixedly carried by the structure;

, a pipe, slidably carried by the supporting element; and an intermediate connecting pipe, having at each end a hinged connection with an end of one of said pipes, the axes of both mentioned axis; the first-mentioned axis lying, in one position of the device, midway between the two axes of the hinged connec-f tions. 7

7. A flexible pipe-coupling, comprising in combination: a structure; a supporting element, pivoted thereto; a pipe, fixedly carried by the structure; a pipe, slidably carried by the supporting element; an intermediate connecting pipe, having at each end a universal joint connection with an end of one of said inent, pivoted thereto; a pipe, fixedly carried by the structure; a pipe, slidably carried by the supporting element; and an intermediate connecting pipe, having .at each end a universal joint connection with an end of one of said pipes; the pivot point between the structure and the supporting element lying, in one position of the device, midway between the pivot points of the two universal joints.

9. A flexible pipe-coupling, comprising in combination: a structure; a supporting element, pivoted thereto; a pipe carried by the structure; a pipe, carried by the supporting element; and an intermediate connecting pipe,rhaving at each end a universal joint connection with an end of one of said pipes; the pivot point between the structure and the supporting element lying, in one position of the device, midway between the pivot points of the two universal joints; and one of said three pipe-elements being provided with a slip-joint, to take up the necessary relative longitudinal travel between the parts of the device.

10. The combination of: two rigid, pivotally connected members; two pipes, each carried by one or the other member and constrained against lateral movement with respectto its member; an intermediate section of pipe;and two ball-and-socket pipe-joints,

each of which joins the intermediate section to one or the other pipe; the pivot between the two members and the pivots of the respective ball-and-socket joints being so positioned that, in one relative position of the two members, the three pivot points lie in a straight line, with the pivot of the two members lying substantially equidistant between the other two pivot points.

11. The combination of: two rigid pivotally connected members; two pipes, each carried by one or the other member and constrained against lateral movement with respect to its member; an intermediate section of pipe; and two ball-and-socket pipe-joints, each of which joins the intermediate section to one or the other pipe; the pivot between the two members and the pivots of the respective;ball-and-socket joints being so positioned that, in the mean relative position of the two members, the three pivot points lie in a straight line, with the pivot of the two members lying substantially equidistant between the other two pivot points.

12. A mechanical movement, comprising in combination: a first rigid element; a second rigid element, pivoted thereto; a third rigid element, rigidly held by the first; a fourth rigid element, carried by the second and constrained against lateral movement with respect thereto; and a fifth rigid element, which is pivoted to the third element, and which is pivoted to the fourth element; the elements being so located and disposed that,

in one position of the device, the pivot joining the first and second elements lies substantially midway between the pivot joinin the third and fifth elements and the pivot joining the fourth and fifth elements. p

13. A flexible pipe-coupling, comprising in combination: two pipe-ends; an intermediate connecting pipe, having a ball-andsocket joint connection with each ofthe pipeit ends; and means whereby these two oints are restrained from turning otherwise than about parallel axes, and means whereby the angle between the two pipe-ends is distributed sub-- stantially equally between the two angles,

each of which is'formed by one pipe-end and x the intermediate connecting pipe.

1%. As a new article of manufacture, a flexible pipe-coupling, comprising two pipe-ends,

an intermediate rigid connecting pipe, and jointed carrying means, the whole being so arranged that the angle between the two pipeends is distributed substantially equally be- I tween the two angles, each of which-is, formed by one pipe-end and the intermediate rigid connecting pipe. o

- '15. Asa new article ofmanufacture, a pivotally flexible pipe-juncture, comprising an intermediate pipe section and'two extreme pipe sections, the intermediate section being swivelly'jointed to each of the two extreme sections; means for carrying each of the extreme pipe sections; and a pivot between these two means, said pivot-being located substantially opposite. the middle of th'e in termediate pipe section; v

16; As a new article of manufacture, a pivotally flexible pipe-juncture, comprising an intermediate section and two extreme sec- 7 tions of pipe jointed together, the joints being internally flared ball-and-socket means for carrying each of the extreme pipe sections; and a pivot between these vtwo means, said pivot being located substantially opposite the middle of the section.

In testimony tures.

MATTHEW .F. KEESE. ALLAN R. TAYLOR.

intermediate pipe whereof we aifix our signajoints;

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

Patent No. 1,772,547. Granted August 12, 1930, to

MATTHEW F. KEESE ET AL.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: Page 2, line 80, for the dash 2 arcs in" read 2 arcsin; and that the saitlLetters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 6th day of January, A. D. 1931.

M. J. Moore, (Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

